M.A. Thesis: A Digital Critical Edition of A General History of the Pyrates

This page is a for my M.A. Thesis in the collaborative program in English and the Digital Humanities at Carleton University.  It is a work in progress and is constantly being updated.  

The page hosts a digital critical edition that consists of a parallel text reading to visualize the changes in 4 editions and one issue of a A General History of the Pyrates, 1724-1726(28).  This work has been attributed to Daniel Defoe, the author of Robinson Crusoe among many other titles, though this attribution has been contested. 

By the  time the first volume of the 4th edition was printed in 1726, a total of five additional chapters had been added to the first volume, while the second volume contained all new material. The chapters about Captains Teach, Anstis, Phillips & Spriggs first appeared in the 2nd edition in 1724;  while the chapter about Captain Smith appeared in the 3rd edition in 1725. The chapter about Captain Thatch only appeared in the 1st edition. 

Currently, I am working on user experience testing for the Title Pages and the Preface using the Versioning Machine V.4. The pages of the Preface are encoded in numerous different ways, to allow readers/users to experience different ways this work could appear in its final rendition.  So all feedback is appreciated.

This project for my Thesis includes a small critical edition addressing six sections of the book: The Title Pages, The Preface, The Contents, the first page of each chapter, the illustrations and the back matter. 

To view the variant readings of the sections of the book, click on the links below. Currently the two sections encoded for a user experience experiment for a final paper in the course "Issues in the Digital Humanities" and the M.A. Colloquium are the "Title Page" and "The Preface" - so these are the only sections that work.  

The Contents                                                                                                                         (Click on the links below to see each section of the book as a comparative diplomatic edition created with the Versioning Machine V.4) ​

Title Page

The Preface

The Contents

Introduction*

Chap I. Of Captain Avery

          II. The Rise of the Pyrates*

           III. Of Captain Martel c.n

           III. Of Capt. Teach*

           IV. Of Captain Bonnet

          V. Of Captain Thatch*

          VI. Of Captain Vane

          VII. Of Captain Rackam

          VIII. Of Captain England c.n.

          IX. Of Captain Davis c.n.

          X. Of Captain Roberts c.n. 

          X. Of Capt. Anstis*

          XI. Of Captain Worley

          XII. Of Captain Lowther

          XIII. Of Captain Low

          XIV. Of Captain Evans

          XV. Of Capt. Phillips*

          XVI. Of Capt. Spriggs*

          XVII. Of Capt. Smith*

Updated April 2015

Legacy Trials: December 2014

1a. Versioning Machine V.4

Title Pages

 1b. UVic Image Markup Tool

Click here to see the original Title page from the 1st edition (1724). It has been marked up to show where changes were made in subsequent editions.

These are ongoing experiments for my MA Thesis with the collaborative program in English and the Digital Humanities.